Dear Malaysia: Mahathir is no messiah
Najib Razak is on the ropes and Mahathir knows this. But is he truly concerned about Najib’s scandals?
Manjit Bhatia, New Mandala
When does one know if a scatological ship with a cargo of lunatics, modern-day pirates, Ali Babas and scoundrels is sinking? Answer: when its top rats start bailing out into the oil-burning ocean.
The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) ship has been listing for years, careening for decades. The flames now engulfing started in its engine room. The inferno’s worsening, and the bomba (fire department) is nowhere in sight.
That’s just what happened two weeks ago. Lim Kok Wing, the founder and owner of the Lim Kok Wing University of Creative Technology in Kuala Lumpur, who also wears the ubiquitous state-conferred phooey title of ‘Tan Sri’, resigned as public relations strategist to Najib Razak, the scandal-racked Malaysian prime minister.
Lim’s resignation was sudden. His appointment to the position last April had equally surprised. Malaysians hurled brickbats at him – a Chinese crony trying to save his Malay patron’s neck while eating up valuable public funds.
Najib, for his part, would have thought that picking a local to conduct his public relations malarkey would be more palatable to Malaysians, under the circumstances, than conscripting and paying millions of United States dollars to an American PR firm in New York City.
But Najib’s problems are deepening still. The more he vacillates over suing The Wall Street Journal for its exposé of the US$700m that had landed in his personal bank accounts – and what’s more linking the money-trail to the pilfering of state-owned 1MDB – the worse Najib’s guilt seems to be.
He’s growing more frantic about holding on as UMNO leader and prime minister of a country that’s obsessed with practicing racism and bigotry and renowned for its state-sponsored maniacal corruption – popular pastimes for the last 58 years.
When Najib almost lost his ruling coalition’s two-thirds majority to the then opposition Pakatan Rakyat in the 2013 general elections, he turned on the racist spigot. His brilliance almost culminated in national disaster following the Low Yat Plaza petty theft-turned-violent racial conflagration on 11 July.
Najib is no Midas. Everything he touches turns to dust. Or worse. He’s now on the ropes; always looking out for UMNO daggers aimed at his back, front and sides. Lim Kok Wing’s job was meant to win back UMNO’s Malay base before they dump him in droves. Perhaps Lim soon realised that Najib’s too far gone. Even Minerva’s owl has deserted Najib.
Malaysia’s disparate opposition parties are hoping Malays will take it upon themselves to throw out Najib and UMNO, particularly now that Majlis Amanah Rakyat or Mara, the state agency entrusted to advance Malay economic interests, and Tabung Haji, the state agency charged with collecting Malay savings for their lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca, have been found with their snouts in the trough over corrupt business dealings in Malaysia and Australia.
Critics say having failed the sniff test, Najib and his cronies have no place to hide. Wrong. They’ll be given sanctuary from investigation and prosecution by Malaysia’s corrupt and pliant police, judiciary and the other bodies presently investigating 1MDB’s non compos mentis affairs.
Only Lim knows why he dumped Najib. But he won’t soon forget the tongue-lashing he got from Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s former prime minister. Lim had personally advised Mahathir to quit publicly attacking Najib.
